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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27208774">Snakes and Ladders</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/redroseinsanity/pseuds/redroseinsanity'>redroseinsanity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hold your breath, count to ten [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, The Uncanny, implied daisuga</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:42:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,694</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27208774</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/redroseinsanity/pseuds/redroseinsanity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Daichi takes three steps forwards and two steps back.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hold your breath, count to ten [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Haikyuu Horror Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Snakes and Ladders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Haikyuu Horror Week 2020!</p><p>This is my first time writing horror so I’m excited but also apologetic if this is not on par with your expectations. In that vein, I’m not sure if I’m tagging this as well as I should be, so if at any point you feel like you want to nope out, please do!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Day 6:</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>smiles that know too much / seeing double / an old woman smiling at you from far away /</strong>
  <strong>endless fields / you don’t need memories / <strike>switched</strike></strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Daichi wakes up to a pale dawn and a drop of dew dotting his cheek. </p><p>A cloudless sky and the scent of barley, the itch of grass poking through his clothes and nothing much else. </p><p>He sits up, unsure of where he is, when he is and worse, who he is. It's a strange, untethered feeling that has him patting himself down, looking for any sort of indication. But all he winds up with is the feel of rough cotton and an increased sense of weightlessness. </p><p>Slowly he stands, surveying his surroundings. The barley field is a sea of dancing gold in the morning light, rippling with the breeze and stretching onwards to the horizon. </p><p>And yet, just barely at the edges of his hearing, the soft patter of rain, though try as he might, there are no dark clouds or even spots of light showers to be found. </p><p>The field is skirted by a thick forest that hems one side of it, running off into the distance. It's endless. Daichi has the sensation of being out at sea, looking around and finding that there is nothing but shades of blue as far as the eye can see, in any and every direction. </p><p>Then it comes, a flash of laughter that seems burned into his memory, it echoes once before fading as abruptly as it arrived. </p><p>It has him staggering, the emotion it heralds is visceral enough to overwhelm Daichi. He's hit with a yearning that isn't possibly generated overnight but dredged from years of missed chances and the scraped residual of discarded hope. </p><p>He's panting now, his heartbeat kicking into overdrive. Overhead a bird shrieks but when he looks up, there's nothing, not even a speck. Just the blazing sun that shouldn't be that high when it was only dawn a few minutes ago. </p><p>His skin prickles and he lurches into a brisk walk, pushing stalks of barley aside, blindly moving. Underneath his fingers the firm stalks turn powdery, crusting off and withering, so he expects to leave a clear path in his wake. Instead, he turns and the field behind him is untouched, waving gaily in the wind, as though Daichi had never passed through. </p><p>It cements his decision to head to the forested area, and he's almost there when another jagged memory tears through. The distinct mark that contrasts against pale skin and the crinkle of a nose, calloused hands in his own. </p><p>This time, Daichi does fall to his knees and he puts a hand out to catch himself, fingers sinking into earth that is too soft to yield the crop it is currently producing. Sitting back on his heels, chest heaving and mind reeling, Daichi pulls his hand back to find it stained a rusty red. He sniffs it and jerks back at the sharp metallic scent. The land doesn't ooze blood, but Daichi feels as though he's reached his hand into a body and yanked out an organ. </p><p><em>How do I- Who is he? Where is he?</em> </p><p>Daichi clambers to his feet, legs shaking and fine tremors running over him. He's got to go, he's got to keep moving. </p><p>Somehow, the scent of rain permeates the air and if possible, the crisp thud of large droplets hitting the dirt grows louder. But still, the air is dry, the sky is clear. </p><p>For a time, he walks along the intersection between field and forest but a glimpse of grey amidst the gold catches his eye and he strains. There, in the middle of the field, a miniscule figure stands. </p><p>At first, his heart leaps—<em>could it be?</em> He narrows his eyes and squints against the glare, only to discern an old woman who waves. </p><p>She's too far away to see her face, but Daichi breaks into a run anyway, struggling through the stalks that seem to catch his ankles and tug at his clothes. His sprint turns into a jog and no matter how fast or how long, or which direction he goes in, she never seems to get any closer, nor does she ever stop waving. </p><p>Trying to catch his breath, Daichi stops, gasping and blinking sweat out of his eyes. She's not any nearer, it's as though he's covered absolutely no distance at all, Daichi feels the futility of it pressing down on his shoulders. </p><p>But now what he initially interpreted as a wave seems more like a call for help or… The chill starts at the base of his spine and works its way up, until the hair on the back of his neck is standing. </p><p>Then he tilts his head, it looks either like the old lady is waving in a frantic cry for help. Or in a gesture to tell him to leave. He shakes off the despondency, shakes off the exhaustion and focuses. </p><p>
  <em>Get out.</em>
</p><p>Suddenly, it's crystal clear, even in the abstract tininess of her movements, the panic slams into him and he's turning on his heel to crash back through the way he came from. </p><p>Only at the border between the forest and the field does he allow himself to look behind. </p><p>The old lady is gone. </p><p>Breathing still ragged, Daichi heads into the forest, and there, the trees all look like monsters and yet, familiar at the same time. They loom, gnarled wooden faces twisted in the bark even as the hot afternoon sun peeks through brilliant green foliage.  </p><p>When he reaches a shallow stream, Daichi tries to drink but the water never stays in his cupped hands for long enough and he resorts to dunking his entire head in. He drinks greedily but when he surfaces, it feels as though he hadn't drunk at all, the thirst hollowing out his insides. </p><p>Giving up, he crosses it instead and when he reaches the other side, his shoes aren't wet, but the cuffs of his pants are damp. </p><p>"<em>Daichi…</em>"</p><p>That's his name, that much he knows. </p><p>He whirls, nearly tipping into the stream as he struggles to locate the source only to hear it reverberate through the forest, the call coming from everywhere and nowhere. </p><p>"<em>Daichi…</em>"</p><p>There. He swivels so sharply that his foot slips on the wet stone and he hits the gravel on one knee, the pain spiking sharply all the way into his hip. </p><p>He hardly feels it, pushing up to run towards the call. Although he's certain he's going the right way, just as it was in the field, when he stops to get his bearings, he could have sworn he passed this tree a while ago and that this was the same bend in the stream he started from. </p><p>"Lost?" </p><p>Daichi gasps, he can't help himself and looks up to see a young man, around his age, leaning against a tree. He's relaxed, hooded eyes gleaming as his mouth quirks up in a cocky grin. </p><p>"Please," Daichi finds himself breathing, moving towards him, not sure what he's begging for, only that nothing is quite right. </p><p>"Ah," Another voice comes from directly behind Daichi and he whips around so fast that he thinks he's seeing things when the new speaker looks exactly like the first, "Looking for him already?"</p><p>Daichi backs up slightly, looking between the two to make sure they're both there. They are, and their identical features make them seem like mirror images for each other. </p><p>"Such a shame," The first speaker drawls, his expression the furthest thing from sympathetic, "The sun's going down."</p><p>That's not possible. It had just been the blazing heat of midday, it had just been the clean slate of dawn. </p><p>But true enough, the muted orange rays of the sun come at low angle, spreading a warm amber glow that infuses the deepening shadows with waning light. </p><p>"Please," Daichi doesn't even care how time functions, he doesn't care about the rain that never comes and the stream that doesn't truly run, "Do you know who I'm looking for? Do you know how I can find him?"</p><p>The second speaker wavers in place, his image splitting in a way not physically possible except that it does. It's almost as if Daichi blinked too hard and his vision doubled before turning normal, so he rubs his eyes a little before looking again. </p><p>And the second speaker is gone. </p><p>Holding his breath, he turns to find the first speaker still there. </p><p>"Give it up, Daichi," Is all he says before he leans just a bit harder into the tree bark and then seems to fall straight into the wood. </p><p>Rushing up, Daichi runs hands over the trunk, looking for a door, a latch, anything. Around him, the sound of rain has gotten progressively louder until it's practically deafening. </p><p>No rain. </p><p>Daichi lets out a roar of frustration before a thin thread touches his face. A spiderweb silky sensation, followed by another and another and another. </p><p>Daichi whirls, batting at the air as the slightly sticky threads harden as they dry. He can't see anything, no spiders or bugs or even people, and once enough strands form a shield over his face, he can't see at all. His legs move only to get tangled in a portion of this thread and he topples, arms already bound and unable to break his fall. Before he can even register what is truly going on, he's cocooned and stifled under this woven coffin. </p><p>Daichi struggles until he's out of air, until the darkness presses against him as much as the cocoon tightens and his mind is a wild, screaming animal. </p><p>Then nothing. </p><p>Daichi wakes up to a pale dawn and a drop of dew dotting his cheek. </p><p>A cloudless sky but the scent of rain, the itch of grass poking through his clothes and nothing much else.</p><p>He sits up, his mind scrabbling for something, anything, and comes up blank. Except the sound of a laugh that rings in like a bell. </p><p>His hands come away from the earth stained with blood and he doesn't know whose it is. </p><p>He starts running. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The idea of the threads cocooning comes from the post-apocalyptic novel, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham! </p><p>I should also be posting concurrently on <a href="https://redroseinsanity.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> as well. Come say hi!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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